This weekend I came home for the first time in a while, to the Forth Worth area, to celebrate my uncle’s 70th birthday. Yep, he’s Father Time now. Of course I’m kidding. This is a Big birthday to celebrate. Not really pertinent to this post, but I had to give my uncle a shoutout.
Anyway, getting to the point…
Since I was home this weekend I decided to finally make the drive all the way back to Rockwall, TX for the first time in almost 20 years to check out Lakepointe Church. The Live Free podcast with Pastor Josh Howerton has been in my regular rotation for more than a year now, and I’ve wanted to hear Josh preach for a while. Of course the one Sunday I can make a service at their main campus, Pastor Josh is NOT preaching.
Ugh! How dare you, Pastor Howerton!
Instead of Josh, the guest speaker this week was Iranian-born and current Tennesseeian, David Nasser. What a downgrade.
Kidding.
I had previously heard David on a prior podcast episode of Live Free where he and Pastor Josh talked about the ongoing war with Iran, and what we, as Christians don’t know and should know. I could dive into all that, but that’s not the point of this post…so, go listen to the episode if you want to know more.
Anyway, as the church is currently going through Luke and “Investigating Jesus” as Luke wrote his Gospel from interviews with many who were eye witnesses to the ministry of Jesus. He wrote his Gospel as a defense of the divinity of Jesus for his “one more;” Theophilus, whom Luke is attempting to convince that Christ is the Son of God. David’s message was actually focusing more on John 6:35 (Jesus, the bread of life) with a tie-in to Luke 9:10-20 (feeding the 5,000). As I was listening to this message, thoughts started to form.
So here we are…
We see the words of Jesus in John 6:35, as he preaches to those who sought him out after the miracle of feeding the 5,000 (more like 15K if you consider only the men were noted and counted in the Bible. Women and children may have very likely been another 5K each).
In the verse Jesus says to everyone there, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” He is being very deliberate and clear here. Jesus knows there are many gods being worshipped during this time. He knows even his people, the Jews, don’t believe he is God (the son of). Jesus is not saying “there are many different gods that are the bread of life.” He’s not saying there are many different options for receiving “the bread of life” and that he is just “A bread of life.” Jesus was making it clear to everyone there that he was (and is) “THE bread of life.” He’s it.
“There can be only one!”
Jesus is not Connor Macleod fighting other gods for the right to be “the bread of life.” There’s no fight to be had. There are no other gods that can stand before HIm. He is the ONLY one.
This assertion comes the day AFTER Jesus preached to more than 5,000 people and then took 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes from a boy willing to say “I’ll share what I have” and turned that small meal for a single person into a banquet meal with enough left over to still feed an army.
Jesus doubles down in verse 40, speaking still to the same crowd. In verse 40 he says, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” He’s not saying “everyone who looks on Allah, Vishnu, Zeus, Baal (really just insert god here) and believes in that god should have eternal life.”
Side note, if you’re looking at your Bible and see letters in red, that’s Jesus specifically speaking, so listen up
Admittedly, I thought about starting this post out with a preemptive apology. Something like, “Hey, heads up that this may ruffle some people’s feathers. Jesus is using some exclusionary language in the verse mentioned here, and it could be offensive to some reading this.”
Then I thought about what the speaker, David Nasser, said during his message. He talked about being asked to speak at a Faith based conference and when the people in charge saw that he was going to speak on John 6:35, their response was to bring up that there would be people of differing religions (Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, etc.) at the conference and the use of the phrase “The bread of life” in this verse was exclusive and offensive where they were trying to be inclusive. David’s response to them was that he knew that it would be offensive and exclusionary.
These words from this passage are Jesus’s words and they are deliberately exclusionary. That’s not to say there is an exclusion on who can have salvation.
Quite the contrary. God wants all of his creation; his children to return to him. Where there is exclusion is in the method in which we can.
Hence, “The…not A.”
Jesus is THE ONLY WAY to reconcile ourselves with God and return to him. No other religion can provide a path back to God. Only through the sacrifice of his ONLY begotten Son can we be reconciled to God.
So, If you’ve read this far and are offended…that may be something to take up with Jesus. That’s not me passing the buck. That is me saying, Jesus (God the Son) is VERY clear that He’s it. He’s the ONLY path to salvation.
“You said that already.”
Yep, because when the Bible says something more than once (and especially when it is seen in the red letters), that’s a pretty good indicator that if we aren’t paying attention, we better be.
Going all the way back to Genesis and ALL the way through Revelation, God is clear. He is THE “Great I am,” THE “King of kings and Lord of lords,” THE “Elohim of elohim,” THE “Alpha (first) and THE Omega (last),” THE“Ancient of days.” The list of names and reference to God (and his Son, Jesus) being the ONLY path to salvation goes on and on. There are at least 2 references in the Old Testament:
Exodus 20:3
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
Deuteronomy 5:7
“‘You shall have no other gods before[ me.”
That’s the FIRST commandment in the 10 Commandments.
Think that’s significant?!
These are the commandments given by God to Moses. They aren’t just significant. They are of the utmost significance.
“Why write about this?”
David was getting to how so many of us as well meaning Christians, are too focused on being nice and not focused enough on being kind. Niceness says “I don’t want to ruffle any feathers or offend those who believe differently than me.” Kindness says “I don’t want to see anyone in my sphere of influence damned to hell for all eternity.” It’s time to stop being “nice” and start being “kind.” If kindness offends…well…Jesus offended in his kindness. He didn’t offend by always having to be right. He offended because his words challenged (and still challenge) the daily walk and beliefs of the people of the day. To be clear, Jesus’s words challenged both the religious elite (Pharisees) and the “regular” people of the day.
In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus sent his disciples out with the “Great Commission” to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[ the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He didn’t send them out to be nice and inclusive. He sent them to be kind (full of grace) AND also to bring the Truth of the exclusionary path to salvation to the Jew and the Gentile.
Jesus is simply put THE source of salvation. Knowing this, and knowing that those around us can only find salvation through relationship with Jesus, why would we ever want to be “nice”?
Let’s go “make disciples of all nations…” because Jesus is “the” bread of life, not “A.”
The Random Musings of a Nerdy Christ Follower 